“The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man.”

— William Howard Taft

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

PA Academy of Masonic Knowledge Meeting Oct 28th

Twice a year, the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge meets in Elizabethtown, PA, usually presenting two outstanding speakers at each meeting. The Academy meetings are open to any Mason who wishes to attend.

The Fall 2017 meeting will take place on Saturday, October 28 in the Deike Auditorium of the Freemasons Cultural Center on the campus of the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown. The speakers for this event are my friends and Brothers Michael Poll and John Bridegroom.

Michael Poll is the editor of the Journal of The Masonic Society. He is a Fellow and Past President of The Masonic Society. If you read Masonic books or hunt them online, you will undoubtedly have come across his Cornerstone Book Publishers. He is one of the most prolific and consistently excellent editors and publishers of both new and heritage books on Freemasonry and esotericism. Mike is a Past Master of Friends of Harmony Lodge #58 and a member of the famed Etoile Polaire Lodge #1, both in New Orleans, Louisiana. Etoile Polaire is one of just ten or so lodges in that state permitted to work the Scottish Rite Craft Lodge degree rituals, derived from the days of their original chartering when France still owned the place, long pre-dating the Grand Lodge of Louisiana. He is also a member of numerous appendant bodies.Michael's presentation will be, “The Enlightenment of Freemasonry.”

John Bridegroom is the Art Director for the Masonic Society and owns and operates The Masters Craft which creates unique Masonic jewels, medallions, pins, and much more. Trust me, you don't have to look too hard to come across his artwork on Masonic websites or lodge decor. John is an extraordinarily active Mason (along with being a fellow Hoosier, where all the cool kids hail from), and is currently the Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Council Cryptic Masons of Indiana. He's a Past Master of Porter Lodge 137 in Valparaiso, IN, belongs to everything you can think of, and something tells me he's got something to do with this...

The title of his presentation is: “Freemasonry as a Hermetic Philosophy.”If you can't make it to Elizabethtown that Saturday, have no worries. There will be a LiveStream of the event on YouTube, and recordings will be available following the event on the Pennsylvania Masons YouTube channel here:

My understanding is that they will take questions from the internet for the speakers that day. For more information on the Academy and the speakers, please visit http://pamasonicacademy.org/

Pennsylvania's educational program is outstanding, and other jurisdictions would benefit from similar programs. Membership in the Academy is free to all Pennsylvania Masons, and they offer a Masonic Scholar Certification program, with the requirement of an extensive reading list, and submission of evaluation papers.

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A mythic past. A visionary future. A legendary brotherhood.

Freemasonry is the largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity in the world. Historically, it is based on the Medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Mythologically it is founded upon the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible. Modern Freemasons likewise use the tools, traditions and terminology of those earlier stonemasons as allegories for building Temples in the hearts of men.

It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself.

At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For each man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires.

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In 2018 Chris was awarded the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana for his "distinguished service to Freemasonry in Indiana and worldwide."

Chris Hodapp received his higher education at Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

He spent twenty-three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 regional and national commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

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